Category Archives: customer service

Have You Mapped Your Patient’s Health Journey?

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woman mapping out patient flow for chiropractic office

Improving Your Chiropractic Patient’s Experience

Advertising has peaked. We are awash in ads coming at us from every possible source. We are hit with anywhere from 4000 to 10,000 ads per day.* With AI and ultra-sophisticated forms of targeting, it’s almost totalitarian.

The new marketing is customer service or Service Marketing.

Advertising has its place, of course, if it is to the right market, with the right message, and the right offer. But with all ads, the low-hanging fruit gets picked quickly, and new ones are needed.

There are other avenues of marketing your chiropractic services, but the importance of world-class service and outcomes is more vital than ever.

You’ve seen the stats:

  • 40% of customers began purchasing from a competitive brand because of its reputation for good customer service.
  • 55% are willing to recommend a company due to outstanding service, more so than price.
  • 85% would pay up to 25 percent more to ensure a superior customer service experience.*

Nothing is radically new about these numbers, but it helps to see them again.

And Service Marketing is not really new. But I believe it is and will be the dominant feature that distinguishes you from comparable providers. This is because content marketing has flooded the market. Therefore, call it service marketing or relationship marketing, turning each of your patients into raving fans who become salespeople for you is an intelligent marketing strategy.

But you must deliver the WOW!

CUSTOMER AND PATIENT JOURNEY MAPPING

Customer Journey Mapping is a relatively new term that has been hatched over the last 10 or 15 years in marketing. While the term is new, the concept is not.

Customer Journey Mapping is a procedure used to visualize and analyze customers’ end-to-end experience as they interact with, in this case, your practice.

It is essentially a flow chart.

It starts with a prospective patient’s first call to make an appointment. What do they see when they drive up to your office, walk through the door, and are greeted? It involves mapping out every encounter and even the likely emotion your patient experiences through Day 1, Day 2, Day 12, and so on.

And how far do you take your patient? Is it 8 visits and done? Do you take them through Acute Care, Corrective and Strengthening, to Supportive and Wellness? Do you have a map for your patients and do they know it? What are the milestones along the way? Are your patients excited about reaching them?

IMPROVING YOUR CHIROPRACTIC AND HEALTHCARE SERVICE

One of the exercises I covered in my book The Goal Driven Business, which has always been useful, is a complete Day 1 and Day 2 walk-through. It is rehearsing your flow chart or patient map.

Everyone watches while someone acts as a patient. I have often done this and acted as a patient. I will notice things that everyone has taken for granted — the old poster from 1989 still on the wall with the Muppets, a dead plant in the corner, a dead smile on the front desk, no explanation when I am dumped off on a therapy unit. Staff start noticing things as well. Redundancies show up, so do poor handoffs between the front desk and the doctor or from the doctor to patient accounts.

Zeroing in on how the phone is answered, an exam is done, or a report of findings is presented, you can find many small improvements that make a big difference on how your patients experience your office.

(Want me to set this up for you? Schedule a time and give me a call.)

Creating your patient’s experience is your most important marketing activity. Mapping it and practicing will help you create raving fans — that will generate even more fans.

Keep improving,

Ed

*The average American encounters around 6,000 to 10,000 ads or brand exposures per day. Source: “MIT Technology Review” article by Michael Schrage (Aug 7, 2017)

*Customer service stats. X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, by Brian Solis

—————————————————-

If your practice building efforts aren’t taking you to your goals,

there are reasons — many of which are hidden from you.

Find out what they are and how to sail to your next level by getting and implementing my new book, The Goal Driven Business.

goal driven business book for CEO and Office Managers by Edward W Petty.

The Goal Driven Business, By Edward Petty

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Five Patient Wants In Healthcare and Chiropractic

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Based upon surveys, patients want the following from their doctors and health providers (References below):

  1. Quality of care: Patients prioritize high-quality care from their doctors and health providers. This includes accurate diagnoses, effective treatments, and positive outcomes.
  2. Communication: Patients value clear and effective communication with their doctors and health providers. They want their concerns to be heard, and they want to be well-informed about their treatment options.
  3. Empathy and compassion: Patients appreciate doctors and health providers who show empathy and compassion towards their needs and emotions. They want to feel understood and supported throughout their healthcare journey.
  4. Timeliness: Patients desire timely access to healthcare services, including appointments, test results, and treatment plans. They value minimal wait times and efficient care delivery.
  5. Patient-centered approach: Patients want their doctors and health providers to involve them in decision-making processes and consider their preferences and values. They appreciate personalized care that respects their individual needs.

What would happen to your chiropractic or healthcare practice if you and your team committed to a 12-month Patient Service Program to improve how your office meets these five Wants? You could give each category 20 points and have everyone give each one a grade from 1 to 20. The consensus might end up with a grade of 80 points, or 70, or 92 when all 5 are added together.

Then, over the next 12 months, everyone could work together each month on each category by refining the procedures and improving service skills. You could schedule in-office team training and individual training through seminars, webinars, and even books.

Guess what would happen to the patient referrals, patient retention, and goodwill as things improved? What would happen to staff morale as their competence increased each month and they saw that patients became happier by working on improving service?

SYMPTOMATIC VERSUS STRENGTH BUILDING MANAGEMENT IN CHIROPRACTIC AND HEALTHCARE

Symptomatic management focuses, as it sometimes must, on the urgent necessitates that immediately increase income. But chasing symptoms, putting out one fire after another, is a trap we can all fall into. You stay busy. There are challenges that you overcome. So, it may seem that you are moving forward. But the months and then years go by, and you look around and are still doing what you were doing years ago. Nothing has changed.

Excellent management addresses urgent concerns but also carves out time to strengthen the skills and procedures of the service team. It builds for the future. And it does so by training, coaching, analyzing and steadily improving each of the 5 service categories, the 5 Wants. Over the long run, this gives patients what they want, and everyone wins.

Help your patients get what they want.

Carpe Futurum (Seize the Future!)

References: Patients’ preferences. PubMed , HCAHPS: Patients’ Perspectives of Care Survey

—————————————————-

If your practice building efforts aren’t taking you to your goals,

there are reasons — many of which are hidden from you.

Find out what they are and how to sail to your next level by getting and implementing my new book, The Goal Driven Business.

 
goal driven business building methodology

The Goal Driven Business By Edward Petty

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Planning Your Chiropractic Marketing for the 4th Quarter in 2023

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Planning GoalDriven.com chiropractic marketing

Happy September!

Well, here we are … the start of September and four more months left to the year.

Now what?

Plan Your Chiropractic Marketing – Marketing Your Chiropractic Plan

So just a suggestion: before we all get too caught up in this new month and the weeks get away from us with all the daily duties, I suggest you set some time aside, and you and your gang plan what you can do to end the year on your best note. Set some goals that are realistic with some fun rewards.

Key is marketing, of course. There are oodles of different approaches and procedures and actives that you can do that work.

Pick a few that have worked in the past. If they are recurring, put them on a list and ensure they are done routinely.

If they are special, done now and then, get them scheduled and post them on a calendar so that everyone can see them.

Your number 1 marketing activity will always be your vibe – and your Table Talk with your patients and with your team.

Inform While You Perform Chiropractic Services

I hardily recommend newsletters as these help to keep the conversation and Table Talk going. You don’t own social media platforms, but you do your email.

Social media has worked now and then for short-term advertising. But if you have been in practice for a few years, you should have quite a base of patients from whom you can nurture and keep them coming in for care. They know you and trust you and should come back. They will if you keep informing them of all the extraordinary successes (and fun!) your other active patients are having. They also have family, friends, and work associates they can refer.

Motivation drives it all, so tap into the wisdom of your tribe. They know what works, and even if they don’t, let them run with an idea, and if they are enthused about it, it might work.

Lastly, plan to win, but don’t get too serious. You and your team are helping people – and how can that not be rewarding? Don’t let the minor fractures in communications that occur on a busy day get in the way of the joy of working with teammates to get others better.

Here is a list of special promotions that have worked for fall.

Seize the next 4 months with love and gusto!

Ed

—————————————————-

If your practice building efforts aren’t taking you to your goals,

there are reasons — many of which are hidden from you.

Find out what they are and how to sail to your next level by getting and implementing my new book, The Goal Driven Business.

goal driven business building methodology
 

The Goal Driven Business By Edward Petty

goal driven business buy now button
 
 

The Patient Handoff

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doctor and two women introductions.

Improving your patient’s experience.

There are subtle and brief moments in your practice when you and your team can earn or lose your patient’s trust. It can make the difference between your patient agreeing to your care program or finding a reason to delay the decision.

Excuses can be easy to dream up. There are hundreds of reasons why someone can’t, or won’t, agree to a care plan or follow through with their care. But the reasons presented may not be the actual ones.

Surveys show that customers cease their relationship with a business when they experience an attitude of indifference on the part of the employee or business. People hate to be ignored.

You know this, so you ensure you and your team communicate well with patients at the front desk and during the report of findings and case presentation. These are obvious communication events.

But just as important, but not always as obvious, is the communication that occurs when the patient is transferred from one staff member to another.

This is called the Patient Handoff.

For example, the doctor has spent time reviewing the exam and imaging findings with the patient and correlated them with their history. The doctor explains the health issues and the care plan to the patient. The patient nods in agreement. With other patients now waiting to be seen and the doctor feeling rushed, the doctor may leave the patient and ask another staff member to schedule the patient for care and to work out their finances.
It would take another 3-5 minutes for the doctor to introduce the patient to another staff member and relay the key information to them in front of the patient. It would be minutes well spent.

“Hi Betty (Patient Accounts Specialist). This is Sam. He works out at the same gym as I do over at Acme Fitness. He wants to keep up with his workouts so I have worked up a treatment plan to help him recover from low back injuries. I’ve included the info in the back (hands written report to Betty). Could you schedule him for his appointments and discuss his payment options?”

“Sam, any questions or comments?”

“No.”

“Ok, great. I look forward to working with you here at the clinic and also at the gym. See you soon.”

After the report of findings is a handoff event that can be too easily cut short or skipped altogether. Another handoff I have often witnessed omitted entirely is introducing the new patient to their therapy and rehab services.

We are all in a hurry, but these patient care transition points hugely impact how your patient experiences you and your clinic.

In sum, patient handoffs help with the following:

  1. The continuity of care ensures that the patient receives consistent and appropriate care throughout their treatment plan.
  2. Minimizing misunderstandings or errors in their care.
  3. Improving your patient’s satisfaction and trust in you and your clinic.

Take time to do thorough patient handoffs, and you will see retention improve, referrals increase, and happier patients.

Working towards a healthier future,

Ed

The Phone Experience and Your New Patients

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I just read about a new study sponsored by a tech company (Invoca.com*) that sought to understand the buying habits of consumers better.

It revealed that as inflation increases, the expectations of customers do as well.

It pointed out that inflation has consumers rethinking their more expensive purchases, including health care. However, almost two-thirds (63%) report that they’re still willing to pay more to get better customer service.

While consumer shopping is based on price, they’re also demanding better experiences. The survey found that more than three-quarters of respondents (76%) said they would stop doing business with a company after just one bad experience.

When respondents ranked the possible reasons why they would stop doing business with a company, a bad phone experience was second only to high prices.

Another interesting fact I noted was that most consumers ranked the phone as their preferred channel when they needed help regarding a purchase. They may go to your website, but the vital moment occurs on the phone. Not texting, emailing, or even visiting the office in person, but the phone call is the preferred method of contacting you.

And the preferred use of the phone in the 2022 survey was up 8% since 2021.

How your patients and potential patients are treated on the phone has an enormous impact on your weekly practice numbers. I would estimate that up to 20% of your volume could fluctuate based upon the great experience or poor experience someone has with your front desk.

The ebullient nature of the staff person you have plays a key role, but so is that staff member’s experience while working in your office. For example, I have seen visits go up when a new happy-to-be-hired front desk staff member takes over the front desk, only to see the numbers dip after they become discouraged a few months later.

The front desk is the most demanding role you have in your office. They need to always be “on,” eager, and interested in phone calls while at the same time checking people in, collecting money, and chatting with patients as they can.

I have spent occasions rehearsing with the front desk on answering the phone. It is simple, but done correctly, it is an art.

Even if your front desk team are pros, positively rehearse with them now and then – tell them even the experts practice daily!

Constant improvement is the road to excellence, and excellent service is needed in our post-Covid world.

And in the end, all this study points to is that common courtesy, genuine interest in and care for each other, being authentic, and kindness are more valuable than ever.

Ed

*https://experience.invoca.com/2022-invoca-buyer-experience-report/p/1

Just Gabbing

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I was once hired by a dental clinic years ago. Numbers had been headed the wrong way (down). Visiting the office, I discovered that no one talked to one another. This was the doctor’s policy. The staff didn’t talk to each other, or to the doctor, and the doctors only talked with the patients. Patient communication was limited, short, and almost brusk.

For about 3 months, I worked with the staff and two doctors to get them together and communicate. No marketing, no policies, no strategies… just gabbing. They got to know each other better. They also discussed issues in the office and started having ideas for improving things.

Also…stats went up!

The doctor was not happy and accused me of not working, just talking! Despite my urging, he didn’t manage by the numbers, just by some old-school idea of working on an assembly line where no one was allowed to talk.

The work ethic of the Industrial Age was that you “clock in,” leave your life behind you, work like a machine for 8 hours, and then “clock out.” You worked at a machine as a machine.

But people aren’t machines.

Minor confusions and then disagreements can accumulate in any relationship. Imagined or real offenses occur. It does in any family, for example. Relationships stiffen when this happens, like a hose in winter with summer’s water frozen.

Relations can be warm and friendly or deteriorate to a cool façade. The internal relationship within the office team ultimately affects both the quality and quantity of the clinic’s performance.

Relationships can be difficult, no doubt. People are complicated, and life is constantly throwing each one of us different curve balls. This is why relationships need regular maintenance. Your family relationships, for example, require time for communication and working things out when there are differences. Planning vacations, reviewing budgets, children’s school and sports activities, and much more takes work.

The same goes with your office family.

A practice is a network of relationships that is created and sustained through communication and service.

I have used this definition for years. I am sure there are other definitions, but this has worked.

This definition applies to your patients. Give them great service, engage in meaningful and empathic communication. They will get better, and they will stay with you longer.

This definition also applies to generating new patients: Expand your network. Get people to know you and how your services can help them.

But this definition also applies to your staff: create and maintain a great relationship with your teammates – and support them.

You must schedule time each week for each other. Staff meetings, training sessions, marketing meetings, lunches, one on one meetings, square dancing (good exercise!) – whatever the venue, make the time to communicate and support each other. This simple act with your staff will help you provide the best service and outcomes to your patients. And help you reach and stay at full capacity.

Keep dancing and …Seize your Future,

Ed

If your practice building efforts aren’t taking you to your goals, there are reasons — many of which are hidden from you.

Find out what they are and how to sail to your next level by getting and implementing my new book, The Goal Driven Business.

STARTING your day- Goal Driver procedure: Case Management

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We are starting a new month… and the 2nd half of the year.

For all doctors and practices, the action of STARTING is important.

In fact, how you start your day is more important than you might realize.

Too often, I have seen doctors rush into the office in the morning and not greet their support team. I have even seen doctors come in late after their patients had been waiting to see them.

In most cases, the doctor’s attention is already somewhere else and not on STARTING the day with their team. They are still CONTINUING from the previous day so that workdays seem to blend together. Mentally, I am sure this brings about extra stress — feeling like work never ends or that you must toil endlessly on an assembly line that you have no control over.

Instead, make each day new. Yes, this is a cliché, but that doesn’t diminish its importance. You create your new and unique day. If you don’t, today just blurs into a continuation of earlier days.

It really all goes back to GOALS. You should START each day with the end in mind.

Goal Driver Procedure: Morning Case Management

We recommend that you start the day with your team 15 minutes before patients come in. Review the numbers and flow for the day, and coordinate patient care. This is a kind of case management meeting. Set goals for the office for that day. Tell a joke.

Morning case management meetings are a great tool to help improve the performance of your practice. Assign this to your manager, put it on a checklist, and make sure it gets done each day.

Now, for a joke: What sits at the bottom of the sea and twitches?

A nervous wreck.

(Let that sink in!)

Carpe Posterum (Sieze the Future)

Ed

Improve Patient Retention Through Gamification

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winner running through the finish line

It all comes back to goals – helping patients achieve theirs.

Last week I discussed improving patient retention through excellent onboarding.

Onboarding is a 21st Century term meaning, in this case, those actions you take with a new patient to introduce and orient them to their new service. The analogy would be a new passenger coming “on board” a new boat. (The link to this article is below.)

The other activity I mentioned that can improve patient retention is also a 21st term: “Gamification.”

Merriam Webster says gamification is: “the process of adding games or gamelike elements to something (such as a task) so as to encourage participation.” The concept is not new, but it has become a science and is integrated into all video games. I cover this in detail in my book, The Goal Driven Business, which I recommend you purchase and use. (Link below.)

Games are native to our species. Even to puppies, as you see them rolling over each other. Kids love to play with their parents, and as they get older, with other kids, and then enjoy organized sports. The Olympic games began, according to one source, in 776 BCE. We love our games, and perhaps, we need them.

Awards

A game poses a challenge where you can overcome barriers and demonstrate your grit. If you win –hurray! Winning is the prize, but sometimes you also receive an award.

In ancient Greece, winners received an olive wreath as a crown. In modern Olympics, the winners receive bronze, silver, and gold medals. In some martial arts, as you advance in your skills, you are awarded different colored belts. When you graduate from college, you receive a nice certificate you can hang on your wall to impress your relatives! (sarcasm)

Your patient has accepted a challenge, along with you and the entire clinic team, to achieve certain health goals. So why not acknowledge or even reward the patient for completing specific benchmarks along the way?

Years ago, I recall some offices would have a special short ceremony for their patients once they completed their program of care. First, the staff would help the patient don a black robe used in graduation ceremonies and a graduation cap (mortarboard) and tassel. Then, they would take a polaroid snapshot (a brand of camera that produced instant hard copy photos) with the doctor and the patient in their graduation garb, give a copy to the patient and attach another to a bulletin board. I have even seen this in a hospital setting, just without the robe!

In Your Practice

Gamification can be applied in your office in many ways.

For example, after completing their 6th visit, the front desk could award patients a silver star sticker. After the 12th visit, they are awarded a gold star stuck to a coffee mug with the office name and logo. Finally, after completing their care program, the patient could receive a diamond star attached to an office t-shirt.

Gamification aims to keep everyone engaged in the “game” of achieving health goals.

One approach to bringing this about is to have a team meeting and go over this idea. Encourage unbridled creativity! Use the best ideas that make the most sense and run the program for three months on a trial basis. Set goals (and awards) for the team for percentages of patients completing their programs.

All these are examples of gamification. But even a “Glad you made it today Mrs. Jones. Good to see you and your daughter” is a kind of an award. Unfortunately, in life, we are rarely recognized for our accomplishments – and mostly for our errors.

So, compliment your patients for their courage to improve their health. It is a big deal and a major accomplishment that they even show up, let alone follow through with their care.

After all, games are fun. So, let the games begin!

Ed

Link to Onboarding Article

Link to The Goal Driven Business

The Goal Driven Front Desk

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A dynamic front desk can increase your visits by 20%, maybe more if you have the room. On the other hand, a dysfunctional front desk can constrict the flow of patients and hold your office back.
I have seen instances of both.
There is much more going on and at stake at the front desk than most doctors and staff appreciate.
Ordinarily, you would think that the billing department is the most demanding. There are hundreds of details that need to be learned and followed with excellent discipline. This position requires professionalism and expertise.
But this function is not on the front lines of the constant patient, phone, and doctor interactions and interruptions. Managing patient accounts can be regulated and organized to maintain a calm and comfortable workflow.
Therapy and adjunctive services are often undervalued, but the patient flow is usually smooth, and they are not faced with unexpected patients or phone calls.
It is interesting to note that the front desk has the highest turnover in most offices.
But properly set up and managed, this department can be an engine of growth and stability in your office.
Let’s look at some of the more important attributes of the front desk:
  1. It represents you and your services. It is your ambassador to the world outside your office. The front desk reflects what you stand for and the quality of your services.
  2. It is the first and the last contact – and impression –with anyone in the office.
  3. It can convert inquiries to new patient appointments.
  4. Rapport and relationships. The front desk can provide world-class service to patients, improving patient retention, reviews, and referrals. (The 5 Rs)
  5. Direct marketing. The front desk can directly promote clinic services to patients, hand out coupons, and promote upcoming events to generate patient referrals.
  6. Team member support. The front desk can support the insurance department and all team members to create a positive, upbeat day every day.
  7. Case Management. The front desk can contribute to case management by relaying any comments or observations relative to the patient’s care to the doctors.
  8. Fully Scheduled Day. The front desk fills the appointment book and keeps it full.
Let’s imagine an ideal front desk and put it at a “5” on a 5 Point Scale.

 

5. GOAL DRIVEN FRONT DESK. The appointment book is full. The front desk staff are cheerful, having fun doing their jobs, and genuinely interested in every patient and phone inquiry. They sincerely care for each patient and non-patient. They have a strong intent on helping patients complete their programs by keeping their appointments. They personally and professionally want to achieve the mission of the office and encourage patients to help them accomplish this mission by bringing in family and friends. They also help the rest of the office achieve the office’s mission. They are sending out positive “vibrations” to help more people. They are proactive and Goal Driven.

 

Below this level, we find the front desk that is struggling.

 

2.5 A COPING FRONT DESK– The appointment book is 50-70% full. The front desk is trying, but it is not keeping up, which creates a bottleneck to patient flow. (Subluxated) Even though the staff wants a full appointment book, subconsciously, they don’t want any more work until they catch up.

 

2. A SLOW FRONT DESK. The front desk operates at a “comfortable” 40-50% capacity. The staff is pacing themselves, keeping up with computer tasks, insurance, and following the scripts for phone and patient encounters. However, they are mostly disengaged from the front desk and office goals.

 

1-2. GIVEN UP and BORED. I only describe this because I have seen this condition. The staff is ignored or badgered. In either case, they feel relegated to a 4th class employee. They hide out and pretend to work, essentially having quit and just waiting until something better comes along.

 

You can create a Goal Driven Front Desk. It is not achieved overnight, but once it is established, you’ll be close to a dream practice and a Goal Driven Business. We will cover some tips on how to create a Goal Driven Front Desk in another newsletter.

 

In the meantime, stay Goal Driven,

 

Ed
“Your brain sends out vibrations all the time, and your thoughts affect your life and other people’s. They pick up these thoughts and get changed by them.”
– Bruce Lipton (Biology of Belief)

The Five Engines Driving Your Business Towards Your Goals

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A service business needs 5 different engines to become a Goal Driven Business

Having goals is not enough.

Your business needs power, and lots of it, to propel it to its goals. There are five primary engines that you need to drive your business to its goals.

  1. Customer Service and Outcomes
  2. Marketing
  3. Leadership
  4. Management
  5. Personal Power

Most businesses have a few of these engines already firing. However, in most cases, full power has not been realized. This means that you may not have enough propulsion to make it to your goals.

Let’s take a brief look at each one, and as we do so, consider how each one rates in your office: half on, fully on and functioning, or barely functioning?

Customer Service and Outcomes. As a doctor and provider, your primary focus is on providing the best service and outcomes possible. This is both in terms of the subjective satisfaction of your patients as well as the objective criteria expected in your results. But to achieve this, you need support, and this support is provided by the organization you put together as the CEO.

Marketing. As the CEO of your business, your organization must first generate customers. As a businessperson, marketing will always be your number one and primary focus. A business is dependent upon the customer. In fact, it could be said that a business is the customer. If you are not providing a service to people that pay you for your care, you do not have a business.

Leadership. An essential quality of the CEO is leadership. Leadership helps define the goals of the business and keeps the team inspired to reach them. It also insists that they are achieved.

Management. In most offices, I have seen attention placed on service, marketing, and leadership. Management, however, is often not given enough attention. Management works out how we achieve our goals. This can be a laborious and difficult process that most business owners just don’t have the time for. Plus, you are paid for your services, not for “managing.”

Personal Life Management. Lastly, often brushed aside, is how well your personal life is managed. Are you happy, and is your relationship with your family and friends healthy? Is your personal life in good order? Too often, because of the stresses of work, our personal lives can drift off in directions we later regret.

THE MANAGEMENT ENGINE

Using the Goal Driven System as explained in my book, The Goal Driven Business, you can learn how to get each engine fully firing so that you have abundant power to make it to your goals.

It has been my experience working with offices across the country that the weakest engine is always management. This isn’t true when the office is just beginning or stays at 40-50% capacity. But once the volume picks up, there are more details that need to be addressed. In addition to providing outstanding service, there is… everything else.

Management deals with “everything else.” And when it doesn’t or can’t, all these untended-to “Everything Else’s” start gumming up the works. Paperwork gets backlogged, phone calls and emails stack up, staff becomes disengaged, patient communications get cut short, and marketing gets put on the back burner. Soon, there is just too much work to do. This clogs up and limits your capacity to provide more and better service and adds more stress to you and the team.

The default solution, which occurs naturally, is a reduction of the volume of services to a more comfortable level. This is the Practice Roller Coaster, the syndrome that causes continuous stress and unfulfilled potential. Service volume goes up, it can’t be sustained comfortably, so the volume comes down.

But good management solves this. It takes you off the Practice Roller Coaster and allows your service volume to continue to increase, unimpeded. And with more services, with good management, there will be more profit.

Of course, if this was a simple solution, more offices would be seeing many more patients and doing much better. The fact is, it is not a simple fix as there are unseen barriers, booby traps, and dead ends that thwart your best efforts to streamline your management and procedures.

I cover this in my book, The Goal Driven Business. I shine the light on the hidden barriers and show you a path that, regardless of your personal skills and personality, you can follow and make it to your goals. The book covers a system of business development I call the Goal Driven System.

Of course, essential to effective management is having a manager! Oddly enough, there are no in-depth training programs for this role, and as far as I can recall, there never has been one. I cover the reasons for this in my book. Yet the ROI on an effective manager is 3 to 4 times, or more, than what you pay them

According to Gallup:
“Based on our largest global study of the future of work, Gallup finds that the quality of managers and team leaders is the single biggest factor in your organization’s long-term success.” (It’s the Manager, Clifton and Harter)

In October, we will be launching our first training program on the Goal Driven System that will include in-depth training for practice managers – and their CEO’s.

If you are interested, contact me  for more information about the Goal Driven System Program and how you can turn your team into Goal Drivers!

Meanwhile,

Seize the Day!

Ed

How to Deliver Goal Driven Extra-Ordinary Customer Service (Part 2 of 2)

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“Our future will be our results.”     Clarence Gonstead, D.C.

How do we overcome these barriers to extra-ordinary service?

Let’s first define “service.” Service in a professional service firm or professional practice includes two categories:

A. Outcomes. These are the results from the provider.
B. Customer experience. This comes from what the customer experiences as they move along their pathway through your business.

Let’s begin with your goals.

1. Define and Commit to Your Highest Goals.

To create world class outcomes and service, you first need to review your most senior goals. Then, you have to ensure everyone understands them, agrees to them, and commits to doing everything possible to achieve them.

Setting purposeful goals over a lunch meeting does not take into account the sacrifice and effort that will be necessary to achieve them. You may commit to your own goals, but like New Year’s resolutions to go to the gym, you get distracted and discontinue after a few weeks. Some of your team may say they understand the goals – even agree to them – but in fact are only passengers along for the ride.

So, you should review and recommit to your goals each week. Be insistent, allowing for shortfalls now and then, but not compromising in the long run. Be true to your goals or make new ones. Spend time on these three:

a) Mission
This is the purpose of your office. It should be short and to the point and should include something about excellent service and outcomes and helping as many as possible.
b) Core Values
These are the standards for professional behavior and performance. List what values you consider most important in providing health care.
c) Patient Outcomes
Define where you are taking your patients. Relief care only? Or are you taking them further to better health and wellness?

Be true to your goals.

2. Outstanding Outcomes Come from Expertise

Because of your clinical skill, you can produce wonderful outcomes. But can you do even better? Here are some masters in their field as examples of professionals that never stopped improving their craft:

Music: Pablo Casals

Pablo Casals was a cellist – regarded as the best that ever lived. He was born in 1876 in Catalonia, Spain. In 1963 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President John F Kennedy, and in 1971, two months before his 95th birthday, he performed for the United Nations and accepted the U.N. Peace medal.

Casals was talented, but he practiced daily. There is a story about Casals and his training regimen:

He [Casals] agreed to have Robert Snyder make a movie short, “A Day in the Life of Pablo Casals.” Snyder asked Casals, the world’s foremost cellist, why he continues to practice four and five hours a day.

Casals answered: “Because I think I am making progress.”

Food Preparation: Chef Jiro Ono

If you want and value good sushi, Chef Jiro Ono is your guy. He was 92 at the time of this writing. He still works in his small restaurant in Tokyo that holds only 20 people at a time. The waiting list can be over a year. Still, at his age, he works on perfecting every aspect of the sushi, from selecting the exact right fish early at the fish market, to the exact texture of the rice. And every night he considers how he can improve on that day’s production. He is considered the foremost sushi chef in the world. (Jiro Dreams of Sushi, David Gelb 2011 documentary, Wikipedia)

“Once you decide on your occupation… you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the secret of success…… Even though I’m eighty-five years old, I don’t feel like retiring.” Jiro Ono (Jiro dreams of sushi, 2011)

Health Care: Clarence Gonstead

Clarence Gonstead was a chiropractor, born in 1898 and grew up in Wisconsin. In 1923, Dr. Gonstead graduated from Palmer Chiropractic College and began practicing. In 1939, he built a new chiropractic office in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.

Because of the growth of his practice, a new Gonstead Clinic of Chiropractic was completed 1964. It was a two-level facility with 29,000 square feet. In 1965, adjacent to the new clinic, a full-service motel was built. Gonstead’s reputation as a remarkable chiropractor had spread beyond the United States and he had patients flying in from all over the world. To assist these patients, he set up a limousine service between the Madison, Wisconsin, airport and the Gonstead clinic about 30 miles away. Patients with their own private planes could fly in and land at Gonstead’s personal airport located next to his home on the outskirts of Mount Horeb.

With no marketing, his practice grew so that that he was seeing over 250 patients per day, working six-and-a-half days a week. He often treated his last patient at 2:30 in the morning.

Gonstead studied and improved his craft. He was not, as a founder of a chiropractic college would later say, a “commercial chiropractor.” He was focused on results and said: “Our future will be our results.”

Eventually, he began teaching others his system which is now recognized around the planet as one of the most effective and popular forms of chiropractic technique. He encouraged other chiropractors to study and to “Practice. Practice. Practice. Never stop.”

So, be like Jiro, Pablo, or Clarence! Use “deliberate practice” and look to see how you can improve your skills and methods so that your customers can achieve their goals faster and better.

Never stop improving your craftsmanship.

3. Delegate Administrative Duties to a Goal Driven Team

It is almost impossible to focus on excellent patient outcomes and run a growing business at the same time. You need a strong support infrastructure. This means professional team members that are trained and motivated to apply procedures that are both simple and effective.

Chiropractic works. Not having a smooth-running support structure is the primary element that is in your way from developing your practice to its full potential.

This has been the major focus of our work over the last 30 plus years. We have found that the better the support, the better the outcomes and the happier the doctor and staff.

Improve your people and systems.

4. Create an Upbeat and Supportive Work Environment

“If you go into any organization that’s customer-facing, you can tell in five minutes when the employees are feeling abused. They retaliate on the customers.”   Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor at Stanford University

The way the employees are treated directly affects the service that they will provide to the customer.

Sure, work can be stressful at times. Maybe someone snaps at someone else. This happens in any high-performance activity. But as long as we all share the same mission and values, we can address our personal slights to each other and move on.

It is everyone’s responsibility to create a cheerful work environment for each other. If you are having fun, so will our patients.

Smile more — and make work fun!

5. Give Your Patients Information. Educate Them!

“If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’.” Henry Ford.

Of course, you give people want they want – what they consider urgent and important.

But people didn’t want a faster horse, they just wanted faster transportation. Horse, car, airplane… they wanted to get to where they wanted to go – faster. They just didn’t know about how simple, fast, and easy a Model-T was.

You must show them through education that you have what they want and need.

Most offices provide relief. That is what the patient is aware of and willing to pay for. But since you are providing a product that is not tangible using procedures that are invisible, your customer may have a difficult time understanding anything beyond the “quick fix.”

They may know they want more but lack the understanding of what is available.

I know I need to pay my taxes, but what I really want is to pay as little as possible. I also would like to contribute to my children’s education. With some education, my accountant could make me aware of different strategies that would take me to my full goal.

“Customers are thirsty for more information and knowledge,” according to studies by ThinkJar, a customer strategy consultancy.

To deliver your best and complete outcomes, you need your patient’s motivation to do so. It is a path and a partnership that you travel together.

The better that they understand their condition and your unique remedy, the easier it will be for you to help them achieve the best outcome possible.

The more they know — the further they’ll go!

6. Making the Patient’s Experience Extra-Ordinary

Making the patient experience “WOW” takes a team effort.

If studies show that customers discontinue a service mostly because of a lack of interest on the part of the service provider — and your own personal experience validates this fact, then the solution is simple. Just be genuine and interested in your patients. Be empathetic. Take the time to be totally present, in the “now,” and have “present time consciousness.” You only have 1 patient, and that is the one you are with, or about to see.

Then, when you practice with your team at team meetings, focus on this: the level of honest interest, curiosity, and care.

Practicing scrapes off the “barnacles” that attach to us all as we soldier through our work days. Here are some training tips for working on improving customer service with your team:

a) Review the Customer’s Journey

Lay out the pathway to and through your services. Do this with your team.

This begins even before your patients contact you. Who are they? Mom’s, seniors, kids? What brings them to you? What other solutions have they tried before they came to you? Get to know them and empathize with their condition.

b) Flow Chart

Then, list the sequence of actions, or a flow chart of what occurs from first contact through their first service and leaving. Drawing this out with your team will expose many areas for improvement.

c) The Walk-Through

Against this flow chart, you and your team can now look at where you can add more benefits for your customers.

I have found that practicing a “walk-through” reveals many hidden plusses – and embarrassing weaknesses, in service. The doctor or a team member takes on the role of a customer. They then travel some portion of the patient pathway with the usual team in their roles, acting as if they are dealing with an actual patient.

You are guaranteed to find areas where service can be improved.

d) Add More Value

Bain Consulting, an international management company, identified 30 different elements of value relative to consumer needs in an extensive study. They categorized these customer values into four categories:

    • Functional values, such as quality, variety, time efficient, simplicity, reduces effort, and reduces cost.
    • Emotional values, which included entertainment and fun, aesthetics, rewards, and attractiveness.
    • Life Changing values which included affiliations, community, and greater purpose.
    • Social Impact. An industry example was Tom’s shoes, a shoe company that donates a pair of shoes to underprivileged for every pair purchased by a customer.

In their research, Bain noticed that the companies that had the highest ratings on the most values had more loyal customers than the rest. They also found that these companies had faster revenue growth than others.

Good service pays. Great services pay even better!

With this in mind, look again at your flow chart and notice where you can add more value to your services. Start with the direct service to your customer, the “functional” areas of your business. For example, how could your customers receive their services:

  • Faster
  • More conveniently
  • Less expensively
  • With less effort
  • With greater simplicity
  • Receive child care while in the office
  • And also acquire a understanding their condition and their care program

In the next category that Bain used, what kind of “emotional” values could you add, including:

  • Fun and entertainment
  • Rewards
  • Design/Aesthetics
  • Attractiveness
  • Reduced Anxiety

The next two categories relate to higher purposes. “Life changing” and “Self-transcendence,” including:

  • Affiliation/belonging – Create a wellness or health club, have patient barbeques and get togethers.
  • Social Impact – Schedule yearly events to help the less fortunate, clean-up drives, and health and environmental causes.

In the years to come, Customer Service will take the lead in all your marketing efforts and will be the factor that sets you apart from comparable alternatives.

Edward Petty